Portable fire pits have become increasingly popular. Such fire pits allow users to cleanly and safely enjoy the pleasures of a fire on patios, porches and other areas where containing a fire had proved difficult and dangerous. However, incorporating a fire pit as a part of patio furniture presents users with issues when it comes to adequate space for drinks, containers, bowls, and the like. Furthermore, the fire pit typically takes up a significant amount of space in the space-limited settings of patios and decks, which makes it difficult to provide additional tables and the like for holding foodstuffs and other service items.
Some conventional designs have been developed where a fire pit is recessed below a tabletop surface, and the tabletop is wholly or partially removed to access the fire pit. Typically, this conventional outdoor patio furniture, such as a table containing a fire bowl or fire pit, has a portion of the tabletop removed in order to allow the user to see the fire, and for adequate ventilation of the fire. Thus, even if the fire bowl is recessed, the area of the tabletop that is removed to uncover or accommodate the fire bowl is an area that is lost to use as a traditional tabletop while the fire pit is functioning. This can quickly turn into an inconvenience if several people are trying to use the tabletop at the same time. Further, drinks or other service items placed on the surrounding lip of the fire pit will quickly heat up due to the fire, and these items may produce an unwanted combustion risk which can potentially spread fire beyond the fire pit.
Some tables containing recessed fire pits are equipped with a flat plate, or covering, designed to be placed over just the portion of the table surface which includes the recessed fire bowl. Use of such a plate or covering will allow the area of the recessed fire bowl to be used as a traditional tabletop. However, both the covering and the fire bowl cannot be used at the same time. This presents the user with a decision: enjoy a fire or enjoy sufficient tabletop space. Furthermore, even when the flat plate or covering is removed, some of the remaining portion of the tabletop cannot actually be used as a result of being too close to the operating fire pit.
Another issue faced in connection with the loss of tabletop space is the problem of limiting the size of the fire bowl (as some designs have reduced the size of the fire bowl to try and address the concerns with other conventional designs described above). As noted above, any area devoted to a fire bowl typically means area not available as tabletop space. Hence, the user is again forced to a decision. This time, the decision is between a robust, vibrant, and aesthetically pleasing fire experience, and adequate tabletop space. However, by forcing the user into making such a choice, the conventional outdoor patio tables with integrated fire pits (or other storage/functional elements such as integrated bowls or ice buckets) do not provide the multi-functionality or space efficiency which is highly desirable in the outdoor patio or deck context.
A need exists, therefore, for an outdoor patio table that allows a user to maximize the space on a tabletop surface that remains available in a table designed for multi-functional use.